Patty Blount | Top 5 Favorite Young Adult Novels/Authors

August 17, 2018

Angie Thomas –
THE HATE U GIVE is probably the best YA written in the last ten years.
First, let me say straight up, I'm a white woman who's never experienced racism.
I've experienced sexism. But the closest I've come to experiencing real racism
was listening to someone call Italians "dirty" while at a book fair. No one has
ever called the police on me for sitting in a Starbucks or working out a gym. My
first response to "Black lives matter" was "All lives matter." Then I read this
book and it changed my mind. It opened my eyes to the kind of fear people of
color face on a daily basis. I've never feared the police. They're heroes,
right? But sometimes, they get it wrong. And when they get it wrong, people die.
Only nobody punishes them. Nobody stops it or does anything to prevent it from
happening again. Instead, they put blame on the dead. They shouldn't have been
where they were, worn what they wore, said what they said. Angie does an
incredible job of presenting all the ugly sides to racism in this novel. Main
character Star has a cop in her family – in fact, he KNOWS the officer who
killed Star's friend. Star is dating a white boy and goes to a white school.
Told in first person POV, you feel every racist slight Star experiences. Worse,
you feel her utter impotence at being able to change any of it. When she finds a
way to fight back, oh how I cheered! This book is a life-changer.

Candace Ganger
– THE INEVITABLE COLLISION OF BIRDIE & BASH is a smart reader's story.
Birdie and Bash meet at a party and then, again when Birdie begins working at a
roller rink where Bash is also employed. But the thing that ties them together
is the one thing neither can ever tell the other -- Bash was in the passenger's
seat the night his intoxicated friend hits the stroller carrying Birdie's
younger brother before driving off in a hit-and-run and Birdie was the one who
left the stroller unattended. Both Birdie and Bash must contend with guilt as
they navigate their individual family struggles. Bash works to present a facade
of success to his dying mother and cover for his rich, troubled friend as his
life crumbles. Birdie feels responsible for her brother's accident and copes by
maintaining a veneer of denial, going to school, and starting a new job. This
book is an astonishingly deep debut that stuck with me long after I finished
it.

I am a huge Katie
McGarry fan. If you're new to Katie, start with Pushing The Limits. Noah
Hutchins remains my favorite YA hero to date and that includes the ones I wrote
myself! We authors are all taught to raise the stakes in our stories… well, the
stakes don't get higher than Noah's own brothers in Pushing the Limits. All
three are in separate foster homes. With Noah soon to turn 18, this book dives
deep into his personal struggles to reunite his family…and the lengths he'll go
to get his brothers back.

Sarah Dessen –
ONCE AND FOR ALL -- Who doesn't love weddings? I adore Say Yes To The Dress
and all things wedding-related so bought this book the second I learned main
character Louna works for her mom's wedding planning business. Then, I
discovered she's wounded after losing her first love to a tragedy. This book has
everything – wounded characters, romance and weddings and happily-ever-afters,
best friends, and a dog. I loved every word, every punctuation mark of this
story.

Judy Blume – she
is the reason I published under my real name – so I could share shelf space with
the legend herself. When I was a teen, hers were the only young adult books
around and taught me so much. From Deenie, I learned scoliosis wasn't the end of
the world or of my life when I was diagnosed with it too. And them from
Catherine and Michael, I learned about sex!

From the award-winning author of Some Boys comes an
unflinching examination of rape culture that delves into a family torn apart by
sexual assault

It's been two years since Ashley was raped by her
brother's friend, Vic. A year since she sat in a court and watched as he was
given a sentence that was more like a slap on the wrist. And now that her rapist
is out of prison, she's not sure she can handle it.

Derek feels
responsible for his sister's assault, and the way he dealt with the aftermath.
With Thanksgiving approaching, he doesn't know if he can face going home and all
he left behind.

Told through alternating perspectives, this powerful
story follows Ashley and Derek's journey to heal themselves and repair their
relationship…before their anger and pain take over.

Native New Yorker Patty Blount is the award-winning author of several
critically acclaimed internet issues novels for teens as well as a few adult
contemporary romances.

She is inspired to write by such greats as Judy
Blume, JK Rowling, and Gayle Forman. In fact, Judy Blume is the reason Patty
elected to write under her real name…so she’d appear on shelves next to her
idol. Patty adores writing; she’s written everything from technical manuals to
song lyrics (see THE WAY IT HURTS, coming August 2017).

Patty wants you
to know she loves chocolate…really, really loves chocolate. When not crushing on
actors Gilles Marini or Sam Heughan, Patty can be found sitting in traffic
somewhere on the Long Island Expressway, listening to audio books or talking
wildly to herself about plots and characters. Prone to falling madly in love
with fictional characters, Patty suffers frequent broken hearts when they all
invariably prefer the heroine to her… go figure. When she’s not writing, Patty
loves to watch bad sci-fi movies and live tweet the hilarity, and scour
Pinterest for ideas on awesome bookcases.

Patty lives on Long Island with
her family in a house that, sadly, lacks bookcases.

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